CrimsonLogic CEO among those accused of offering bribe of
$35,000
By Selina Lum
Oct 26, 2005
The Straits Times
THE chief executive of CrimsonLogic, a government-linked IT
company, was charged with corruption yesterday along with two of
his senior managers and a former legal counsel.
The four are accused of agreeing to give a bribe of $35,000 to the
former head of Carrefour Singapore's IT department in exchange for
recommending that the hypermarket award an IT project to
CrimsonLogic .
Chief executive Velusamy Mathivanan, 50, was charged along with Tan
Geok Hoon, 47, vice-president of the trade and logistic business
unit, financial controller Thiagayson Sundram Pillai, 52, and
former legal counsel Alvin Lim Keng Hong, 41, who has since left
the company.
The appearance of the four in court marked the end of a year-long
probe by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).
The bureau had received a complaint in September last year that the
head of Carrefour's IT department, Mr Matthias Tan Eng Haur, 35,
had received a bribe from a vendor in return for awarding it an IT
project worth $400,000.
Investigations revealed that Mr Tan first went to software company
Gridnode, saying he would recommend to his management that it be
awarded the project.
He also wanted a bribe of $60,000 but Gridnode refused to pay him,
the bureau said in a statement.
Mr Tan then sought a $35,000 bribe from Mr Pang Kang Ming, the
business development manager of CrimsonLogic, for recommending that
the project be awarded to CrimsonLogic.
It is alleged Mr Pang sought the approval of Mathivanan, Tan,
Pillai and Lim, who agreed to give the money to Mr Tan through a
third party, Actinium Corporation.
It is understood that CrimsonLogic eventually clinched the project.
But no money changed hands.
However, Mr Tan was fined $25,000 after he pleaded guilty in
February to attempting to obtain a bribe from CrimsonLogic. A
second charge of attempting to obtain a bribe from Gridnode was
taken into consideration.
No plea was taken from the four accused yesterday. Mr Pang is named
in the charges as an accomplice, but he was not charged.
Mathivanan, Tan and Pillai are represented by Mr Wendell Wong while
Lim's lawyer is Mr Wee Pan Lee.
Each of them was granted bail of $35,000 and the case was fixed for
a pre-trial conference on Nov 8.
In a press statement, CrimsonLogic said that measures have been
taken to ensure business continuity so that customer service is not
affected.
Mr Leong Peng Kiong, who is on the company's board of directors,
has been appointed acting CEO.
Mathivanan, Tan and Pillai also issued a statement stating that
they have offered their 'fullest cooperation' to the authorities.
'We will be patient and let due process take its course,' they
said.
CrimsonLogic, formerly known as Singapore Network Services, was set
up in 1988 by IE Singapore, the Civil Aviation Authority of
Singapore, PSA Corporation and SingTel.
The company counts among its partners government bodies including
IE Singapore, the Supreme Court, the Land Transport Authority, and
technology companies like Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems.
Among the IT solutions it has implemented are the electronic data
systems TradeNet, Biznet, HDB ResaleNet and the Electronic Filing
System in the courts.